FRACKING OR FOOD??!

California fracking opponents aiming to stop development of massive state oil reserves are focusing their drive this year around the state's record-breaking drought, arguing oil production would suck sorely needed water from farms and homes.

California Rep. Marc Levine told Reuters last week that he will co-author an upcoming bill that would place a moratorium on hydraulic fracturing in the state, and said he will use the drought, which could be the state's worst ever, to bolster his position.

"The drought is a game changer on fracking," Levine said. "We have to decide what our most precious commodity is—water or oil? This is the year to make the case that it's water."

Demonstrators protest against fracking outside the State Capital after California Governor Jerry Brown delivered the State of the State address in Sacramento, California, Jan. 22, 2014.

A moratorium bill failed last year on a vote of 37 to 24, although another bill requiring greater disclosure on fracking, including water use, passed.

State Sen. Holly Mitchell, Levine's co-sponsor on the bill, is not planning to focus on the drought, but environmentalists already are capitalizing on it, picketing Gov. Jerry Brown at events including his announcement of the drought.

"Fracking uses water we just can't spare," said Dan Jacobson, legislative director for environmental lobby group Environment California.

Fracking has created an energy boom in the U.S. and has the potential to drastically increase oil production in California Monterey Shale deposit, which federal officials have estimated holds up to 15 billion gallons of oil, more than most estimates for Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and twice the reserves of North Dakota's Bakken shale oil deposit.

Bad for gas!!!

2 billion in workers wages!!

Cheap energy!!

Choose energy!!

HARD WINTER MEANS MORE OIL PRODUCTION

Getty Images

Brent crude eased back after hitting a five-week high above $109 a barrel on Monday as investors look ahead to more U.S. and Chinese economic data this week that could shed greater light on the demand outlook in the world's two largest oil consumers.

Investors will also closely track speeches this week from the new head of the U.S. Federal Reserve, Janet Yellen, for assurance that monetary policy will stay loose.

(Read more: Crude ends higher, lifted by hunger for heating oil)

March Brent crude fell 33 cents to $109.24 a barrel by 0349 GMT, easing from a session high of $109.75, its loftiest since Jan. 2.

U.S. crude for March delivery was down 3 cents at $99.85, after rising to $100.46 earlier in the session, the highest since Dec. 27.

"We are striking resistances on both charts, Brent and West Texas. I suspect that's containing the exuberance in the market," CMC Markets chief strategist Michael McCarthy said.

"Should we push through say $100.50 on West Texas and $110 on Brent, we could see a spike on technical buying that could continue the rally."

(Read more: Cheaper crude and fuel exports help US refiners' profits)

Oil jumped more than $2 on Friday as investors overlooked lower than expected U.S. non-farm payroll data to focus on a frigid winter that has boosted oil products demand.

"The overall picture of the economy remains one coming out of recession and quite clearly in recovery mode," McCarthy said.

Brent prices could also be supported by tighter Forties supply this year as Britain's biggest oilfield, Buzzard, will undergo a total nine weeks of maintenance in 2014, rather than the two weeks traders had expected.

Both the oil benchmarks appeared overbought on technical charts, pointing to lower prices, said Tetsu Emori, a commodity manager at Astmax Investment.

(Read more: Oil giant warns of 'significantly lower' profit)

Investors were also treading cautiously amid risks in emerging economies, he said.

Easing geopolitical tensions over Iran's nuclear program weighed on oil prices as supply from the OPEC producer could rise if Tehran reaches a final deal with world powers.

Iran has agreed to start addressing suspicions that it may have worked on designing an atomic weapon, the U.N. nuclear agency said on Sunday.

Iran and six world powers are due on February 18 to start a final round of talks aimed at reaching a broader diplomatic settlement with the Islamic state.

Deadly oil!!!???

Kerry's Kitchen is where Casselton residents gather for gossip and comfort food, especially the caramel rolls baked fresh every morning. But a fiery rail accident last month only a half mile down the tracks, which prompted residents to evacuate the town, has shattered this calm, along with people's confidence in the crude-oil convoys that rumble past Kerry's seven times a day.

What was first seen as a stopgap measure in the absence of pipelines has become a fixture in the nation's energy landscape -- about 200 ''virtual pipelines'' that snake in endless processions across the horizon daily.

It can take more than five minutes for a single oil train, made up of about 100 tank cars, to pass by Kerry's, giving this bedroom community 20 miles west of Fargo a front-row seat to the growing practice of using trains to carry oil.

(Read more: US, Canada team up to avoid deadly train wrecks)

A train is derailed west of Casselton, North Dakota

''I feel a little on edge -- actually very edgy -- every time one of those trains passes,'' said Kerry Radermacher, who owns the coffee shop. ''Most people think we should slow the production, and the trains, down.''

Casselton is near the center of the great oil and gas boom unleashed these last few years. And it has seen up close how trains have increasingly been used to transport the oil from the new fields of Colorado, Wyoming and North Dakota, in part as a result of delays in the approval of the Keystone XL pipeline.

About 400,000 carloads of crude oil traveled by rail last year to the nation's refineries, up from 9,500 in 2008, according to the Association of American Railroads.

But a series of recent accidents -- including one in Quebec last July that killed 47 people and another in Alabama last November -- have prompted many to question these shipments and have increased the pressure on regulators to take an urgent look at the safety of the oil shipments.

In the race for profits and energy independence, critics say producers took shortcuts to get the oil to market as quickly as possible without weighing the hazards of train shipments. Today about two-thirds of the production in North Dakota's Bakken shale oil field rides on rails because of a shortage of pipelines. And more than 10 percent of the nation's total oil production is shipped by rail.

Since March there have been no fewer than 10 large crude spills in the United States and Canada because of rail accidents. The number of gallons spilled in the United States last year, federal records show, far outpaced the total amount spilled by railroads from 1975 to 2012.

Railroad executives, meeting with the transportation secretary and federal regulators recently, pledged to look for ways to make oil convoys safer -- including slowing down the trains or rerouting them from heavily populated areas.

(Trains go up to roughly 35 miles an hour through towns and at higher speeds outside populated areas.)

They also agreed to speed up a review of tougher standards for the train cars used for oil. And last Thursday, safety officials urged regulators to quickly improve industry standards.

GAS PRICES FALL DOWN A LITTLE??

The average price for a gallon of gasoline in the United States dropped 3.46 cents over the past two weeks, retreating from its highest level since mid-October, according to the Lundberg survey released on Sunday.

A gallon of regular-grade gasoline cost $3.3113 on average across the United States, down from $3.3459 two weeks earlier, according to the survey taken on Jan. 24. The average is 3.3 cents lower than $3.3443 average from the same period a year-ago period.

The $3.3459 price published in Lundberg survey on Jan. 12 marked the highest level since mid-October.

(Read more: Accidents surge as oil industry takes the train)

The decline was because of a decrease in wholesale prices by suppliers and refiners, said Trilby Lundberg, publisher of the survey. "We can point to the entire downstream half of the oil business to cutting the price on the street in the past two weeks," Lundberg said.

She expects gasoline prices to decrease by up to 2 cents during the near term, but not more.

(Read more: This asset is rallying—and that's bad news)

San Diego, California had the highest average price of $3.60, while Billings, Montana had the lowest average price of $2.84, according to the survey of major cities in the 48 continental states.

Crude oil going down slow

Crude fell on Monday, with Brent falling toward $107 as investors dumped risky assets over worries about weaker emerging market economies.

The U.S. Federal Reserve is widely expected to cut its bond-buying by another $10 billion at its regular two-day policy meeting starting on Tuesday, which would have knock-on effects for emerging market liquidity.

Getty Images

Tighter credit conditions in China are also raising fears of a slowdown. Analysts also pointed to concerns over Chinese growth following weaker-than-expected data last week. A Reuters poll showed economists expected Chinese GDP growth to slow to 7.4 percent in 2014 from 7.7 percent in 2013.

Brent crude was down more than $1 to under $107 a barrel. U.S. crude gave up early gains to trade down more than 1 percent to under $96. The weaker Brent price reflected a sell-off in stock markets in Asia and Europe following a hammering for emerging market currencies and bonds last week.

Emerging markets had benefited from investment flows when interest rates in the United States and other developed markets were low. But now that the Fed is changing tack, investors are getting out of the emerging markets with large current account deficits, raising fears over their future economic health.

USA OIL IMPORTS DROPPED!!?

U.S. crude-oil imports dropped below 7 million barrels a day for the second time in 14 years as domestic output grew, the Energy Information Administration said.

Shipments dropped 1.07 million barrels a day to 6.89 million in the week ended Jan. 10, the EIA, the Energy Department’s statistical arm, said today in a weekly report. They reached 6.86 million on Dec. 6, the lowest level since Jan. 28, 2000. Imports averaged 9.35 million in the past 10 years.

Domestic production increased to the most in more than 25 years as fracking and horizontal drilling boosted output from shale formations, including Bakken in North Dakota and Eagle Ford in Texas. West Texas Intermediate crude, the U.S. benchmark, traded $14 cheaper than the European benchmark Brent on Jan. 10. The gap has been above $10 since Nov. 7.

“We have increasing supplies of domestic crude,” said Tom Finlon, Jupiter, Florida-based director of Energy Analytics Group LLC. “That’s why imports have been declining. The Brent-WTI spread has been so wide for so long and foreign crude is better off to go somewhere else.”

Imports to the East Coast fell 51 percent to 435,000 barrels a day, the EIA reported. Shipments to the Gulf Coast decreased 11 percent to 3.09 million, the least since September 2008.

25-Year High

Domestic production climbed to 8.16 million barrels a day last week, the highest level since July 1988. Output surpassed imports in October for the first time since 1995, according to the EIA.

Production will average 8.54 million barrels a day this year, up 14 percent from last year’s 7.5 million, and will reach 9.29 million next year, the most since 1972, the EIA said on Jan. 7 in a monthly report.

Imports will account for 24 percent of total U.S. liquid fuel consumption in 2015, the lowest level since 1970. That’s down from 33 percent in 2013 and 60 percent in 2005.

WTI for February delivery rose $1.82, or 2 percent, to $94.41 a barrel at 11:27 a.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent futures climbed $1.12, or 1.1 percent, to $107.51 on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange. The European benchmark grade was at a premium of $13.10 to WTI.

BIG OIL HAS GOT TOO WAIT!!

Pemex Offshore Oil Platform

Oil companies from Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) to Chevron Corp. (CVX) will have to wait another two years before investing an estimated $20 billion in Mexico’s recently opened oil and gas industry.

Foreign crude producers will be allowed to bid on fields for exploration and begin developing infrastructure and operations as soon as late next year, Deputy Energy Minister Enrique Ochoa said in an interview at the ministry in Mexico City. Prior to granting the operating licenses, the legal framework has to be determined and state oil producer Petroleos Mexicanos must select the fields it plans to continue to develop, he said.

“We estimate that by the end of 2015 or beginning of 2016, we could be in the stage of implementation,” Ochoa said. “We must be professional and careful with the necessary institutional development prior to the following rounds.”

President Enrique Pena Nieto ended the 75-year production monopoly held by Pemex, as the state oil company is known, allowing foreign companies to produce crude in the largest supplier to the U.S. after Canadaand Saudi Arabia. The overhaul could bring an additional $20 billion foreign direct investment as soon as 2015, according to Bank of America Corp.

Ochoa’s forecast lags behind the prediction of Victor Herrera, Standard and Poor’s Latin American Managing Director, who said pipeline and shale gas investment could be seen “very quickly” in a Dec. 20 interview. Herrera said Mexico could see economic growth from the reform as soon as the second half of 2014.

Trans canada pipe line???

TransCanada Corp. Hardisty Terminal

TransCanada Corp. (TRP)’s proposed Keystone XL pipeline is losing popular support in Canada, a development that could embolden opponents of the project, according to a poll released today by Nanos Research Group.

Canadian support for the $5.4 billion link between Alberta’s oil sands and U.S. Gulf Coast refineries has declined to 52 percent in December from 68 percent in April, while opposition has increased to 40 percent from 28 percent. The survey of 1,000 Canadians taken between Dec. 14 and Dec. 16 has a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points, according to the Ottawa-based agency.

The poll adds to evidence that a push by environmental groups, aboriginal activists and celebrities such as musician Neil Young opposed to big oil projects may be affecting public opinion. President Barack Obama’s government is weighing whether to approve TransCanada’s plans. Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper is a strong proponent of the pipeline, a key part of the country’s plans to find new markets for its oil.

The Canadian government “has to be concerned about the erosion of approval in Canada, not just in terms of its impact in Canada but also in terms of the U.S.,” Nik Nanos, president of Nanos Research and Global Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, said in an interview. “This has implications for the anti-Keystone movement in both countries.”

Indian oil heads too Canadian shores??

Even as the hurdles on the way to large-scale exports of US shale gas to India have been largely removed with Washington deciding to export super-cooled gas to countries with which it has no free trade pact, Indian energy firms have laid the road map for a major foray into the North American continent with an explicit focus on Canada.

Three Indian companies — state-owned Indian Oil Corporation and ONGC Videsh (OVL) and Hiranandani Group from the private sector — have firmed up plans for their Canadian forays, seeking a play across the value chain ranging from crude oil sourcing, acquiring upstream assets and setting up LNG and crude oil terminals.

While ONGC Videsh has set up an office in Calgary to scout for oil sand assets, Hiranandani Group subsidiary H-Energy is investing $4.4 billion to set up LNG and crude oil export terminals. IOC will, for the first time, will source crude oil from Canada.

Sources said OVL is seeking oil sand assets mainly in the Alberta province of Canada, including an investment proposal of $ 5 billion in assets owned by oil major ConocoPhilips. The crude contained in oil sands is also called tar sand and is a heavy and viscous form of hydrocarbon. “We are currently looking for joint venture partners for buying oil sand assets in Canada. Canada is a good investment destination as it is investor-friendly and has a stable economic and political climate,” said the official. Light oil that is low in sulphur is, however, more valuable to refiners than heavy oil with higher sulphur content). As a result crude oil from oil sands trades lower than other oil benchmarks.

IOC will for the first time source crude oil from Canada which will be delivered later in the next 35 days.

“We will be buying a spot cargo of 1 million barrels which we hope to ramp up subsequently. This is conventional crude oil, not oil sands, which will be linked to the Brent crude prices,” said an IOC official.

IOC officials said that the company is currently sourcing oil from the east coast of Canada which has closest proximity to India. It hopes that infrastructure facilities including pipelines from the west are soon connected to the east coast so as to access a larger share of Canada’s hydrocarbon resources. IOC is also looking to acquire upstream assets in Canada.

H-Energy, on the other hand, has acquired 600 acres of land in Nova Scotia to set up two separate LNG and crude oil terminals. “We will invest about $ 4 bn to set up the LNG terminal and about $400 million for crude oil terminal. The crude oil terminal should be ready in 2018 and the LNG terminal in 2020,” said Darshan Hiranandani, MD, Hiranandani Group of Companies.

Analysts say the US shale boom has forced Canadian oil producers to expand exports beyond traditional markets to fast the fast growing Asia-Pacific region. Government officials from the province of Alberta present at the Petrotech 2014 conference said that they have led a huge delegation to India as they are quite keen on attracting Indian investments. The province offers benefits like a low tax burden as well as boasts of having the fastest growing economy in the country.

Gulf oil exporters should cut exports??

European Pressphoto Agency

U.A.E. Oil Minister Suhail Mohamed Al Mazrouei

Already forced to develop alternative sources of energy, Gulf oil exporters should introduce legislation to cut their domestic reliance on fossil fuels to ensure they have enough oil to export, according to the U.A.E.’s energy minister.

“Given the trend we’re observing with Gulf countries emerging as major energy consumers, it is clear that the region has entered a new era,” Suhail Mohamed Al Mazrouei said. “It will now require new policies to manage and meet domestic energy demand, while at the same time ensuring our commitment to our customers across the world.”

Mr. Mazrouei didn’t elaborate on the regulatory framework the oil-rich Gulf states need to create to maintain their position as reliable oil suppliers, but his remarks highlight a serious concern that these countries risk consuming an ever-growing amount of their own fossil fuels, leaving less to be exported.

Oil production from the Gulf members (Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates) of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries is close to 20% of total global oil demand. Around 80% of that was exported, according to official data.

Demand for energy in Saudi Arabia, the cartel’s kingpin producer, is currently growing at a rate of 7% a year. If this continues for the next 20 years, the kingdom will burn more than eight million barrels a day domestically, or around two-thirds of its current production capacity of 12.5 million barrels a day, some economists say.

In neighbouring U.A.E., the demand for electricity is set to rise at a rate of about 9% a year through 2020. The country, which is one of the world’s top five power consumers per capita, has already turned into a net gas importer in the past decade, due to rising gas demand from power stations and industrial users such as petrochemical makers and steel manufacturers.

Subsidised petrol and electricity programs are a major contributor to the huge waste of energy across the region, and its fast growing population has little incentive to moderate energy use. Since popular unrest started to spread in the Middle East and North Africa in 2011, these subsidies have become lynch-pins in the social programs of some autocratic regimes desperate to maintain public support.

“We cannot just cut subsidies and risk a popular discontent, even though that subsidies is eating up energy resources fast. It is too hot politically and especially now,” a Gulf oil official told The Wall Street Journal. “We are left with investing in renewables and nuclear, while coming up with new regulation that may help ease energy waste.”

But past attempts to cut subsidies in the region have faltered. In 2010, the U.A.E. considered phasing out fuel subsidies, but the plan stalled amid the turmoil of the Arab uprising. In early 2012, the Federal National Council of the U.A.E. unanimously approved plans to cut gasoline prices after complaints from citizens that they pay too much.

BLACK GOLD IN TEXAS!!!

We are browns oil industry news want you too know Texas oil is about to be golden this year!!!

Thanks to the rapidly increasing production from the Eagle Ford Shale and the Permian Basin, Texas reached another milestone in September, 2013:  As a separate nation, Texas would now rank as the 9^th largest oil producing country in the world.

As reported here by Dr. Mark Perry, according to the International EnergyAgency (IEA), in the year preceding last September, Texas oil production surpassed that of oil-producing giants like Brazil, Venezuela, Nigeria, Mexico and Kuwait to move into the hypothetical Top Ten oil producing nations on earth.  During September, Texas’ oil output was measured by IEA at 2.7 million barrels per day.  This represents a doubling of the state’s daily oil output in just 29 months.  Not since the early years of the 20^thcentury has the state seen such a rapid rise in its oil output, and that steep incline shows no signs of slowing anytime soon.

If anything, the boom in West Texas might even accelerate in the next few years.  The nascent Cline Shale play is beginning to heat up, and results continue to be very good in the Wolfberry/Sprayberry and other plays in the Permian.  If current trends continue, it is very likely that Texas would leap past OPEC giants like Iran, Iraq and the United Arab Emirates to become the equivalent of the 6^th largest oil producing nation over the next 12-18 months.

Anyone predicting this sort of meteoric rise in the state’s oil producing fortunes as recently as three years ago would have been labeled a nut case.  And yet, here we are.  Let’s take a look at some of the outcomes this ongoing boom in shale oil and natural gas production has produced:

• The Commerce Department reported recently that the November U.S. trade deficit was $34.3 billion, the lowest monthly deficit in more than four years.  The single biggest factor?  A $2.5 billion drop in the value of imported oil, made possible by the domestic oil boom.  Crude imports were down by almost $40 billion during the first 11 months of 2013, a phenomenal decline during a period of economic growth.
• This dramatic decline in the trade deficit in turn led leading forecasters to significantly raise their projections for how rapidly the economy grew in the 4^th quarter.  Macroeconomic Advisors increased its estimate from 2.6% to 3.5%, which, if accurate, would be the single highest rate of quarterly economic growth since the onset of the Great Recession in 2008.
• Inexpensive and abundant natural gas is fueling a manufacturing renaissance in the U.S., producing tens of billions of dollars in new plant and equipment investment, and bringing tens of thousands well-paying jobs back from overseas.
• The U.S. boom has in turn significantly increased U.S. international competitiveness vis a visEurope, where industrial leaders are in near panic at the loss of jobs and investment back across the Atlantic.  Germany is in a particularly difficult fix, as it relies on exports for half of its annual GDP, and its energy costs remain on an upwards trajectory thanks to its wrong-headed over-reliance on non-competitive renewable fuel sources like wind and solar.
• The U.S. oil boom is also having an impact on the geopolitical balance of power.  As Daniel Yergin noted on January 9, Iran is suddenly taking nuclear negotiations seriously, and that well might not have happened were it not for the boom in shale oil production in the United States.
• The boom in domestic oil production has also created a new national energy debate over whether it is time to repeal the 1970s-era restrictions on exporting crude oil.  Some U.S. refiners, whose facilities are geared to refine heavier oils imported from overseas, are finding themselves overwhelmed by the increase in light, sweet crudes being produced from the Eagle Ford and other shale formations, and some producers are concerned they will find getting their product refined at reasonable prices increasingly difficult unless they are able to export some of it to international refining facilities.  The good news for consumers is that this is the kind of debate that comes about thanks to abundance, not shortages like we saw in the 1970s.
• In Texas, as we’ve previously noted, the oil and gas boom, along with prudent fiscal management by leading policymakers, has fundamentally transformed the state’s budget picture from one of lingering annual shortfalls to one of steadily growing surpluses, along with a Rainy Day Fund that is consistently filled to the gills
  .

Iran deal help crude prices

Brent crude fell below $107 a barrel on Monday after six nations struck a fresh six-month deal with Iran to curb its nuclear programme and U.S.President Barack Obama urged Congress not to impose additional sanctions on the country.

Crude oil prices trended lower following gains on Friday after weaker-than-forecast U.S.non farm payrolls suggested the Federal Reserve may slow tapering its bond-buying stimulus.

Getty Images

Brent crude for February delivery was down 50 cents under $107 per barrel. The contract had settled 86 cents higher on Friday. U.S. crude slipped 80 cents to under $92 per barrel, after closing $1.06 higher on Friday.

The highly anticipated U.S. jobs numbers on Friday showed a rise of just 74,000 in December, the smallest increase since January 2011, which suggested the Fed may take it easy in tapering its bond purchases that have boosted liquidity and appetite for risky assets such as oil.

A deal between Iran and six major powers intended to pave the way to a solution to a long standoff over Tehran's nuclear ambitions will come into force on Jan. 20, the Iranian Foreign Ministry and the European Union said on Sunday.Sanctions against Iran over its nuclear programme have kept about 1 million barrels per day of oil off global markets, but an agreement reached Nov. 24 last year raised hopes of a long-term deal that could see Iran resuming full exports.

AMERICAN OIL COMPANIES WANT A CHANGE!!

American oil companies have not been allowed to export crude for 40 years, but the industry wants to change that, even though the U.S. still consumes far more oil than it produces.

A surprising surge in domestic production of light, sweet crude — a particular type of oil that foreign refiners covet — has triggered growing calls to lift the restrictions, which were put in place after the Arab oil embargo of 1973.

But the idea is touching a nerve that remains raw four decades after oil shortages crippled the economy and led to the law that banned crude exports without a special license.

"For 40 years, energy policy has been shaped by that experience of the 1970s," says Daniel Yergin, energy historian, author and vice chairman of the research and analysis firm IHS. "But we are in a different world. Neither our logistics nor our thinking has caught up with the dramatic changes in North America."

Skeptics worry that lifting the restrictions would lead to higher gasoline prices and decreased energy security. Economists and analysts argue that it would have little or no effect on prices, largely because the U.S. already exports record amounts of gasoline and diesel, which are not restricted.

Some experts say allowing crude exports could actually improve energy security by encouraging more domestic production.

Major oil companies such as Exxon Mobil and ConocoPhillips, along with the American Petroleum Institute, an oil and gas lobbying group, are the biggest proponents of ending the ban.

On Tuesday, Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski released a paper on energy exports describing the nation's export laws as "antiquated" and urging President Barack Obama and the Senate to allow crude exports. Late last year, Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz suggested at an industry gathering that it may be time to revisit export laws.

But easing the restrictions will be politically difficult, especially in an election year. In a recent letter to Obama, New Jersey Sen. Robert Menendez made an argument that is likely to resonate with voters: "Crude oil that is produced in the U.S. should be used to lower prices here at home, not sent to the other side of the world."

Environmental groups have worries, too, mainly that by allowing U.S. companies to export crude to get higher prices, producers will be able to afford to go after oil deposits that require more elaborate, more environmentally damaging techniques.

That the nation is talking about exporting oil at all is a result of a huge turnaround in domestic production in states such as North Dakota and Texas. The U.S. is producing more crude oil than it has in 25 years, and the government predicts production will approach its 1970 peak of 9.6 million barrels per day in 2016.

Castor seed prices drama!!!

The price of castor seed on the futures market has risen from around Rs 3,400 a quintal (100 kg) in the second week of October to Rs 5,054.

MUMBAI: The sharp volatility in castor seed prices in the run-up to peak arrivals has given industry officials the jitters of the commodity possibly going the guar way, which was banned by the commodity futures market regulator for a year through May 2013 because of excessivespeculation and price volatility.

The price of castor seed on the futures market, which is a reflection of spot prices, has risen from around Rs 3,400 a quintal (100 kg) in the second week of October to Rs 5,054 in the second week of December and has corrected to around Rs 4,400-odd since then. This when the peak arrivals of the crops begin between January and April.

The gyration in price raised alarm bells among industry players - Jayant Agro, Adani Wilmar,Gokul Group - and the Solvent Extractors' Association (SEA) that represents them. SEA wrote to commodity futures regulator a fortnight ago warning that initial expectations of a normal castor crop - 12-15 lakh tonnes - did not justify the kind of volatility witnessed in futures prices recently. BV Mehta, ED, SEA, confirmed that industry concerns were conveyed to the FMC. However, FMC chairman Ramesh Abhishek was not available for comments.

Mexico hopes for oil!!!

Gulf of Mexico — More than 3,000 feet below these waves, with a drill bit wider than a human thigh, Mexico is digging for its future.

The gulf is one of the world’s great largely unexplored reservoirs of oil and gas, industry experts say, but the state-run oil monopoly Pemex so far has lacked the money and technical capacity to extract from its deeper waters.

Now that the country has passed legislation opening up its beleaguered oil industry to outsiders for the first time in 75 years, the government is hoping that future partnerships with foreign companies to drill for hard-to-access undersea oil will mean billions of dollars of new revenue.

“The easy oil is all gone,” said José Luis Sánchez Mosqueda, a well engineer on the Centenario platform. “We need to get unconventional oil.”

Mexican oil production has fallen by nearly a quarter in the past decade as the easy targets dry up, and Pemex has struggled with inefficiency and mismanagement.

“We’re facing a pretty serious crisis,” said Miriam Grunstein, an oil specialist at CIDE, a public research university in Mexico City.

Pemex officials estimate that 50 billion barrels of oil may reside in the depths of the gulf, more than all their proven reserves on land and in shallower waters. In the gulf’s American waters, oil companies have been pumping oil for years from deep waters, defined as anything below 500 meters (1,640 feet).